Saturday, July 28, 2012

Making Butter

What better way to pass a long summer evening than by reading a good book together as a family? We are currently in the middle of "Little House in the Big Woods." I insisted on reading this particular title. If I had to hear Pa speak with the voice of Sean Connery I would be scarred for life.

As we were reading the chapter about Ma making butter, I remembered that we have this lovely wooden butter mold from Grandmother Hinton (Benny's mom):

It is cracked, but isn't it lovely?

So last night we made butter. The children really enjoyed shaking the jar of cream, salt, and a few marbles for agitation. We tried taking turns telling part of a story while shaking, but that only lasted until we got to Katie, who makes everything into a story about herself being half-dragon. Then we tried singing as we churned, but they were all being too silly.

Daddy and the Girls

Go, Audrey!

Katie Takes a Turn

Owen is a BLUR!

Next, the kids watched me try to work all of the buttermilk out of the butter. I will confess that I didn't do a very good job, resulting in poor results later with the butter mold.

Katie, what are you doing?!?!

We had saved a bit of the cream to whip with sugar. While we waited for the butter to harden a bit in the refrigerator, the kids dipped apples in whipped cream. YUM!

Then it was time to try the mold. Owen watched me pack it down:

And out it plopped. Very, very messy looking. But still delicious! (For those who are tempted to say that I should have done _________ to prevent the butter
from sticking to the mold, let me inform you that it was 9:30 and I
really didn't care anymore.)

This morning I made gluten-free biscuits with the buttermilk and then spread the fresh butter and some honey on them. Even I had a bite...so good!

4 comments:

What a fun project! I agree that it would be very, very wrong to hear Sean Connery as Pa. I am totally jealous of your butter mold! What a treasure! It's so good to see ya posting. Oh, and I'm a lot more concerned with Audrey picking her toes on the table than wondering what Katie is up to. LOL!

Sounds like a lot of fun, Jenny! Looks yummy! Would love to see gluten free biscuit recipe... or any gluten free recipes you have personally tried. I'm kinda nervous about working with the different types of flours. The kids are so big!

Patty, it was just a mix. And it had dairy in it, which was why I only tried a bite. Kevin and the kids said it tasted vaguely like pretzels? I hadn't had a biscuit in over two years, so it tasted GOOD to me!

I pretty much stick to rice and potatoes only for my starches these days. (Plus starchy veggies like squash and carrots...) I'm totally inept at the whole GF flour thing and haven't gotten to the point where I feel good enough to experiment.

Greetings from the roof!

Thanks for dropping by! Let's see...who am I? I am a sinner and a saint, wife of Kevin, mama of Katie, Owen, Audrey, and surprise baby Eli. My days are filled with dishes, laundry, cooking, homeschooling, and music. I love my life and am thankful to God for blessing me in so many ways.